“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” –Martin Luther King Jr.

“”I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.” –Malcolm X

I wish this were a better article, but it does remind us to some extent of how the world became this sad and screwed up. The why of it seems to be the same old suspects — ignorance, arrogance and greed. Maybe we can’t eliminate such failings in other people, but at all costs we must minimize our own! Ignorance looks like the place to start. Frankly, if we can’t spot the less-than-subtle lies, distortions, spin and propaganda we are all constantly bombarded with, at a hundred yards, it’s way past time we start learning.

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Palestinians Die Because The Bush Doctrine Still Benefits Hamas
Crooks and Liars * July 26, 2014 3:30 pm
By Vegasjessie
Hundreds of Palestinian innocents are being slaughtered by a war between Hamas and Israel. If Bush hadn’t intervened, Hamas wouldn’t be in charge of Gaza.
The American people are largely uneducated in history when compared to our Canadian and European counterparts. Not pre-Colombian or Renaissance history, I’m talking about the years since Ronald Reagan imposed Voodoo economics on America and the world. The disaster that was the Bush Crime Family’s reign of terror did not merely include the disregarding of CIA warnings pre-911, a war or two based on false pretenses and economically insane tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. No, this two term trauma also included imposing his will where it had no business. I guarantee, the first remark by at least 75% of readers will be, “when are you guys going to stop blaming Bush and let Obama take responsibility for his own actions?” Actions have consequences, and they are not always felt in the short term. Take, for example, the gutting of the mental health industry by Reagan. Since then the number of homeless Americans, especially veterans with mental illness is unacceptably high.http://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/
We are still recovering from the financial meltdown of 2008, one that Ben Bernanke said was caused by financial innovation + inadequate regulation = (a) recipe for disaster.http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_big_idea/2010/01/what_caused_the_economic_crisis.html
So obviously Bush’s intervention in Palestine has consequences we are still feeling today, no matter what President Obama tries to do.
Bush pushed for Palestinian elections when Israel, amongst others, cautioned against this as many correctly predicted a Hamas victory. In June 2002, when Bush in a White House speech pressed for the Palestinians to “to elect new leaders” and “build a practicing democracy,” helped encourage an election in a tumultuous time when poor and desperate people often clinged to their guns and religion, as candidate Obama once said. We all know how well that comment went over, even if it couldn’t have been more true. In an article in 2006, Salon correctly pegged Bush’s folly.http://www.salon.com/2006/01/27/hamas_4/
“By either creating or failing to deal with hated foreign occupations, he has sown the seeds for militant Islamist movements that gain popularity because of their nationalist credentials.”
Fox News’ Charles Krauthammer praised then President Bush’s foreign policy “accolades” as if the Bush Doctrine was democratizing the Arab World.
America, using power harnessed to democratic ideals, could begin a transformation of the Arab world from endless tyranny and intolerance to decent governance and democratization.
History of the region is poorly portrayed by American media outlets, especially Fox News, who is an arm of the Israeli Likud Government. Unlike Netanyahu, even his own nephew is vehemently against war, and this war is not just based on religion.http://www.care2.com/news/member/775377582/3433314
This conflict is actually one very much like the displacement of Native Americans based on Manifest Destiny in the nineteenth century. Up until the formation of the Jewish State, the area was occupied by roughly 85% Muslims, and it was a real place called Palestine. Many say Palestine is not a “real” country, but the folks who lived there for hundreds of years would beg to differ. The tired argument heard more times than I can count is that no neighboring Arab nation would take them. Then again, what country welcomes immigrants with open arms these days? Look how America treats our Central American refugees.
The land was abruptly divided when the Zionists formed the nation of Israel in 1948, divided by not only religious disagreements but for the simple fact the residents were forced onto reservation-like conditions after hundreds of years of living on their own land. Add things like blockades of supplies, disruption of utilities and curfews, the Palestinians were not welcomed by Israeli society but were treated, from the onset, like pariahs. The “catastrophe,” or “nakba,” of Israel’s creation, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes into exile. Seldom do we hear in the American media the perspective from the Palestinians’ side. The Center for Research on Globalization, based out of Montreal, Quebec tells a different story here about Israel.http://www.globalresearch.ca/gaza-massacre-foretold-in-2005-what-may-come-after-the-evacuation-of-jewish-settlers-from-the-gaza-strip/12212
It took six months to complete, consider the toll, and understand the Nakba’s meaning. It displaced 750,000 to 800,000 people – men, women, children, the elderly and infant civilians. Many hundreds or thousands of others were killed. Sweeping destruction was carried out. It erased 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods in Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and other cities….Golda Meir said: “There are no Palestinians” and Menachem Begin and Nobel Peace Prize recipient called Palestinians “two-legged beasts” and said Jews were the “Master Race” and “divine gods on this planet.”

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About l. l. frederick

I'm pretty ordinary, so I find any number of things in the world interesting, among them: books, music, flowers, food, social justice, politics and (sometimes!) people. As for my writing, I've decided that I can be subtle and tasteful when our only problems are esthetic ones. Or when I'm dead, whichever comes first. In the meantime, read at your own risk.

Linda, to be quite honest, I haven’t posted much lately because like I told Skulz, I am sick to pieces of talking to myself because after reading countless ‘American exceptionalism blogs’ and getting constantly inundated by media clowns that have jumped on the “America can do no wrong,” bandwagon, I am simply fed up!

How we can remain this simple with all the information that is at our fingertips is absolutely mindboggling!
….and Linda, thanks for letting me rant! Sorry about this comment! Please, by all means, delete it if you wish.

No problem, Shelby. You let me rave in your space, so what the hell. As Jeff Nguyen once quipped in response to my ramblings, ‘a little snarling and swearing in a good cause never hurt anyone.’ Or words to that effect.

I’ve never formulated a “policy” on reader comments here. If they get through the spam filter, I tend to let them stand. I don’t feel it’s my job to censor intelligent adults … and who else reads this stuff? If I ever find something overwhelmingly offensive, I might remove it — but that would be “offensive” by my standards, not, as you know, because of what’s generally considered impolite language. In my ignorance, I’ve assumed I’ll know when something’s unacceptable and go from there.

So, provisionally at least, rant away! Let’s hope there’s less to rant over now and then, we could stand some better news. We could stand a better world! But we know it’ll take a ton of blasting and hammer-drilling to penetrate the tough overburden of ignorance and brainwashing out there. Wear your steel-toed stiletto heels, and don’t forget safety goggles — we need that clear vision of yours! – Linda

P.S. And you know, I don’t get all the willful, if not desperate and determined, ignorance either. Denial is a damn powerful force, especially when fostered and reinforced by cynical, calculated vested interests, which seems to be the deal these days. Ignorance is anything but bliss for the victim, but seems to be damn useful for the perpetrators! Confusion and worse to all who spread and increase ignorance — that’s the last thing we need! Thanks again for your thoughts, any time. – LLF

Don’t leave Clinton out here – he’s the one who rammed the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords down our throats. Besides denying Palestinians the right of return, they also set up the Palestinian Authority to serve as judge and jailer for Palestinian activists who were adjudged “too radical.”

The main reason Hamas won the election in 2006 (both in the West Bank and Gaza, mind you – neither the US nor Israel recognized their victory in the West Bank) was that Palestinians were fed up with the deeply corrupt Palestinian Authority acting in Israel’s interest – rather than the interest of ordinary Palestinians.

I never skip Clinton — he’s earned a full measure of blame for helping make the world so safe for corporate domination, among other counter-productive efforts. But as you’re well aware, I’m never sufficiently thorough. It was lazy of me not to provide information balancing this clearly partisan piece. Many thanks for adding such valuable comments and your most interesting link. Divide and conquer, it’s a hoary old approach, but still dismally effective. – Linda

The Palestinians must resist to exist, there is no alternative. Thanks for adding context and clarity to what passes as “discourse” in the corporate media outlets. It appears that Israel’s heavy handedness and brutality may be turning public opinion against them, at last. As you know, the majority of the Jewish people have been co-opted by their political elite just as Americans have, which is an important distinction to make. Keep snarling and swearing, Linda. 😉

Jeff, I hope you’re right. Heavy-handed is putting it mildly, I’d say. When I read Israel’s ‘humane’ warning for Gazans to “evacuate” all their assault targets, I got this image of thousands of people, carrying their babies and their wounded, all marching stoically towards the Mediterranean shore. With no Moses to part the waters for them. And Israeli gunboats ready to blast away as soon as they got their feet wet.

Meanwhile, “independent thinkers” like my mother, who mistrust everything else about our government, have no trouble supporting Israel. (It’s the war on those radical terrorists, you know.) I do hope we can penetrate the force-field of willing ignorance too many surround themselves with. For too many of our people, it is still somehow perfectly acceptable not to see and not to care about human beings once they’ve been labeled as enemies. Thanks so much for your comment, and for all your work to spread the truth. – Linnda

Yeah, the advance notices were neither compassionate nor humane but designed to escalate the fear and terror for Gaza’s residents. It’s a psyops technique that the U.S. military used in Iraq to disseminate propaganda and impose their will on the Iraqi people. Leaflets were first used in World War I by Germans over Paris: http://bit.ly/1s84jGZ